The New York Underground Museum: Where PUNK Lives!

Hey Ho! John Holmstrom, creator of PUNK Magazine here. I helped propel the CBGB/Punk scene of the 1970s into international prominence. I was involved with the “Save CBGB” movement years ago, which failed, but this time we have a great opportunity to save a building in the same neighborhood that has a lot of cultural history: 9 Bleecker Street.

This was home to the Yippies (Youth International Party) from the early 1970s until 2012. Then it was taken over by the Overthrow Boxing Club, which kept the neighborhood history alive and well in the building. Now? It’s up for sale. And I am part of a movement to try to buy the building to create The New York Museum of the Underground on the location.

From Pfaff’s Saloon in the 1850s (located at Broadway and Bleecker) to CBGB in the 1970s to 2006 (Bowery and Bleecker), this area has always been where so many counterculture movements took place. From the Bohemian movement, to Jazz music, the Beat generation, folk music, hippies and Yippies, then to punk rock and the East Village art scene, the East Village has always been a home to free-thinkers, cultural rebels, crazies, oddballs, weirdos, musicians, artists, writers, filmmakers… You name it.

But there are no museums, nor is there any institution that explains, memorializes, and celebrates the many diverse and interesting subcultures that emerged from the most interesting neighborhood in the USA.

Amazingly, I have been working with the brokers selling the building and they and the owner are intrigued by my efforts and want to make this happen (unlike the "Save CBGB” movement which was doomed from the start). We need to raise funds immediately to put a refundable deposit, then much more to secure the mortgage. I think we can make this happen. Thousands of tourists visit the East Village to try to experience all of the cultural landmarks. Whether it was the Gaslight Cafe, where beatniks drank espresso in the 1950s, the Fillmore East where 1960s psychedelic bands performed, or CBGB in the 1970s where the Ramones, Blondie, the Talking Heads, and Patti Smith performed (followed by the hardcore scene where The Beastie Boys, Murphy’s Law, and Bad Brains played)?

Bleecker Street has always been where underground culture formed and developed. So please contribute what you can so we can preserve these cultural movements for the future. Thanks!